Oden Has Successful Surgery, Out For Season

First the good, via Joe Freeman at the Oregonian:

Trail Blazers center Greg Oden underwent successful surgery Sunday to repair his fractured left patella. ... “Surgery went very well,” general manager Kevin Pritchard said. “He knows he’s got work to do in rehab but we have a lot of confidence in him and expect him to make a full recovery.”

Now, the bad:

Roberts inserted two screws into Oden’s left knee to reattach the patella and that bone now has to repair and bond itself. Pritchard said this typically takes two months. Through that process, in which Oden will be forced to do very little, he will experience muscular atrophy and it will take roughly two more months of rehabilitation to recover from that.

Pritchard refused to put a timeline on Oden’s return during a conference call with reporters, except to say that he expects the 7-foot center to be back in time for the start of training camp next season. Oden was expected to remain at the hospital for observation overnight and return to his home sometime Monday. Multiple family members were either en route or had made plans to travel to Portland to be with him.

Indeed, however "successful" the surgery may have been, this still means that Oden is having screws put into his knee. There will be muscular atrophy and a lengthy rehabilitation process and all the other good stuff that comes with suffering a serious injury. The Blazers and Oden have been here before; they know the process well.

And that's why it hurts so much.